Mem­bers of the Palmiste Block 3 Com­mit­tee held their first Fun Run, Ride and Walk yes­ter­day to raise funds for a Well­ness Park in their com­mu­ni­ty.

The event was or­gan­ised to sup­port the in­stal­la­tion of out­door ex­er­cise equip­ment at the park.

Pub­lic Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer Joan John-Cum­ber­ma­ck said the turnout, which in­clud­ed more than 80 par­tic­i­pants—some from out­side the com­mu­ni­ty—sur­passed their ex­pec­ta­tions. 

John-Cum­ber­ma­ck said the ini­tia­tive was still in its ear­ly stages but aimed to build a clos­er-knit com­mu­ni­ty and pro­mote phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly among chil­dren who spend long hours on their de­vices.

“We want to cre­ate a safe way for peo­ple to come out and have fun and en­cour­age be­ing out­doors, phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ties, health and well­ness but al­so com­mu­ni­ty to­geth­er­ness,” she ex­plained.

Res­i­dents, fit­ness en­thu­si­asts, and health ex­perts vol­un­teered their time not on­ly to sup­port the event but al­so to demon­strate how to prop­er­ly use ex­er­cise equip­ment and per­form ex­er­cise rou­tines.

Vice Chair­man of the Palmiste Block 3 Com­mit­tee, Sasha Ad­do, said plans for the park in­clude an out­door ex­er­cise area, a but­ter­fly gar­den, a walk­ing track, fenc­ing, and light­ing. Fu­ture up­grades may in­clude courts for ten­nis and bas­ket­ball, he said. 

“We need lots of sup­port. You can reach out to us and make a do­na­tion, but this is our first event to raise funds. We’ve al­ready got a lot of com­mu­ni­ty sup­port and sup­port from busi­ness­es in the area too,” said Ad­do.  He added that there are plans to host fu­ture events, such as Christ­mas and food-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ties, with the hope of part­ner­ing close­ly with lo­cal busi­ness­es in the area.

The morn­ing event in­clud­ed a food sale fea­tur­ing five va­ri­eties of chokas with sa­da roti, drinks, and oth­er del­i­ca­cies.